Flavor is an important part of foods including beverages, confections, and other products of commerce. It serves as a primary inducement to man and animals for eating food to concomitantly nourish and sustain themselves. Additionally, for man it gives pleasure and social benefit. To satisfy these purposes, the development of flavor imparting materials that create a sense of satisfaction on the sensory organs of the oral cavity has become the subject of increasing research. This development also arose because of the dual pressing needs for safety-in-use flavor imparting agents to replace those in use that tend to exhibit toxicity or other adverse effects and also for restoring to convenience foods such as instant beverages, deep frozen dishes and dehydrated ready packed meals the flavors lost in the preparation of these foods. Additionally, it is now universally recognized that the use of consumer acceptable flavor imparting agents is essential if the ever increasing world population is to receive flavor attractive and tasty foods.
The present invention makes available a group of flavors which because of their large molecular size in use are not absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract into the body. The present materials are not degraded from their nonabsorbable size during their passage through the gastrointestinal tract. The present materials are soluble in water and aqueous solutions so to permit their use by admixture in the wide range of aqueous based foods, confections and pharmaceuticals which by far make up the majority of materials consumed by man and beast alike.
Applicant is aware of several prior art references which do relate to large-sized flavoring materials.
Applicant's own U.S. Pat. No. 3,876,816 issued on Apr. 8, 1975 and filed of even date with the parent of this application is directed exclusively to nonabsorbable sweetener compounds.
Also of interest is the work carried out with high molecular weight natural protein sweeteners such as the material extracted from the Dioscoreophyllum Cumminsii berry of Nigeria. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,826,795 of Essiet issued July 30, 1974. This sweetener initially is of a size which in theory should resist passage from the gastrointestinal tract. However, being proteins, these sweeteners are hydrolyzed at the acid conditions of the stomach to yield small fragments which are absorbed as they pass through the gastrointestinal tract.
Further references are U.S. Pat. No. 2,596,852 issued to Heggie on May 13, 1952; U.S. Pat. No. 3,818,107 issued to Yolles on June 18, 1974; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,826,847 issued to Ogawa et al on July 30, 1974. Each of these references concerns chewing gum. The Heggie reference like the present invention shows flavors chemically bound to large molecules. In the case of Heggie, the large molecules are water insoluble vinyl acetate gums which, while useful in chewing gums, because of their water insolubility do not function in most conventional flavoring applications. The Yolles reference as well shows flavors bound to polymers but expressly requires that the bond between flavor and polymer be easily rupturable so that the flavor moieties be released from the polymers upon mastication of the gum. Thus the flavor moieties would be of an absorbable size as they pass through the gastrointestinal tract. The Ogawa reference shows flavors combined with polymers. This combination is not a chemical one as required herein but rather is a physical dissolving, dispersing or admixing which would not restrict the flavors' absorption.
In view of this presentation, it becomes immediately apparent that a pressing need exists for flavor imparting agents having consumer acceptability with no unwanted effects as frequently associated with the prior art, and that can satisfy the needs and wishes of the user.